The present invention relates to distributed transmission systems and more specifically to an electrically and mechanically modular transceiver design for passively coupling a maximum number of users to the transmission line. For any given distributed transmission system having the requirement of minimizing point-to-point wiring while maintaining optimum data communications between an optimum number of geographically and functionally distinct users, it is necessary to make numerous passive connections or taps to the transmission line. As the number of taps and users increase however, there are associated problems with loading and reflections on the transmission line which affect the integrity of the data and control information being transmitted and received over the line.
The present invention accommodates these requirements in a high impedance transceiver and combination transceiver design that maintains the integrity of the transmission line and acts as a fanout point to the associated input/output ports to the various users.